


Two Worlds Split Apart

by oswinry



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 20:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17351870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oswinry/pseuds/oswinry
Summary: When Amy and Rory are touched by the Angel, it's not New York they find on the other side, but a parallel London. Met by two strangers who claim to be the Doctor and a former companion, the stranded couple search desperately for a way back home - and the reason they crashed through the walls of the universe in the first place.





	1. Prologue

“Amy, please, just come back into the Tardis. Come along, Pond, please!”  
  
The Doctor’s voice is breaking and if Amy dared to look back she is sure she would see him cracking and crumbling, the way he had when she’d been pulled under the earth all those years ago, but she doesn’t. River will catch him. River always does. She just has to have faith.  
She takes a breath and it scrapes in her throat. For an instant, she thinks about it: going back to the Tardis, wrapped in a blanket by the Doctor. She would have River back. She could go anywhere. She could forget and move on, save planets and galaxies and drown her loss in the light of alien suns.  
  
But–Rory.  
  
Two thousand years.  
  
She takes another breath and whirls around. The Doctor’s face is a mask of devastation, but Amelia Pond has talked down bombs and she has lost a child and lives to tell of it, and she will not lose Rory.  
  
She says her good-byes and feels a coldly burning touch, and the Doctor’s face blurs–  
  
And she’s blinking in the sunlight, and Rory’s face is there, eyes huge and mouth worried and Amy says, “Rory,” and the world rights itself.  
  
She launches herself at him, and loses herself in the feel of his lips on hers and his arms around her waist and his shoulder bumping into hers, and they are together and it’s perfect–  
  
But Rory says, “Amy…” and something in his voice makes her stop and look around. “Amy, there’s something wrong.”  
  
“There’s always something wrong! Nothing about this is right! Can’t it wait?”  
  
“Amy, look around.”  
  
Amy does, and shrugs. “So? It’s London instead of New York. Maybe the Angel got confused. At least we know our way around.”  
  
“No. Look up,” Rory insists. Amy drags her eyes to the sky and freezes.  
  
The sky is full of zeppelins.

* * *


	2. A Meeting

"Rose!" The Doctor bounds through the doorway of Rose's office, barely missing the beautiful vase of flowers he'd brought her for her birthday just days ago–nagged into it by Jackie, she supposes, but no less romantic for that. She looks up and sighs as she takes him in.

"Your hair's sticking up again," she informs him. "And I know that only happens when you really tug at it, because I see the amount of hair gel you use in the morning. And you only mistreat your hair like that when something weird's going on with your gadgets, and when that happens I usually have to run for my life. Which is not nearly as fun as it used to be. So it would be wonderful if you could please not break my pretty flowers and spoil my mood."

"Pregnant. Right," the Doctor says, eyes going soft and gooey. Rose feels her lips tug into a fond smile as she looks at him. He's absolutely daft, but he's daft and in love with her, which makes up for it.

He clears his throat. "Anyway. Yes, my transdimensional temporal-disruption magnifier–not 'weird gadget,' Rose–just went crazy. There's been a major time disturbance just south of here–" he pauses. "Hold on, did you just criticize my hair?"

"Not really the point at the moment, Doctor, but yes. You look like you went for a nice climb on a lightning rod."

"Mmm. Did that once," the Doctor muses. "It wasn't terribly pleasant..."

"Doctor!"

"Right! The trans-dimensional temporal-disruption magnifier is showing a disturbance down in the southern part of London. It's big, Rose. As in, potentially..." he hesitates, "something could have come through from another universe."

"Another universe?" Rose questions, and he nods. "Ours? Our original one, I mean?"

He looks nervous. "Possibly. Well, almost probably. Well, almost certainly, hiding from the wavelength and the location. It, or they, arrived right around the spot we did when we got here the first time."

Rose sucks in a breath. "Bad Wolf Bay?"

He looks horrified. "No. Rose, no. It's in London, remember? When we got here with Mickey."

"Right," Rose says, feeling foolish. "Sorry."

He reaches out and covers her hand with his own, eyes dark. "Rose. I know I hurt you, then. I'm not very good at this, I know, but please, don't ever apologize for–for that."

She curls her fingers around his. "You're doing fine," she tells him softly, and stands, wincing a little as she does so. Her pregnancy has definitely lost her some of the freedom she'd had back in the Tardis days, but she wouldn't give it up for the world. She breathes in and smiles. "Just let me check with my supervisor," she says, "and we can go investigate this crack in the universe."

It's a short ride to the area the Doctor had indicated. They take a cab, the Doctor staring intently at a small, shrilly-beeping instrument that Rose assumes in the trans-dimensional tempish...whatever. She's learned a lot about technology–had to, to use the Dimension Cannon–but honestly, the names the Doctor has for things don't half make sense. She suspects they're made-up.

Finally, the Doctor says, "Stop!" and jumps out of the cab as soon as it pulls up to the kerb. Rose rolls her eyes and pays before joining him in the sidewalk.

"The disturbance is just...that way," the Doctor says, pointing to his right. "Look for anything out-of-place. Or, alternatively, an intelligent toaster. This gizmo doubles as a malevolent-kitchen-appliance detector."

"Why," Rose demands, "would we need to detect evil toasters?"

"Oh, they turn bad more often than you'd think. All those crumbs stuck down there, and nobody bothering to clean them. You'd be grumpy too."

"I suppose," Rose agrees doubtfully, scanning the sidewalk. Her gaze catches on a loudly arguing couple. "Somebody's having a row."

The Doctor glances over at them and stiffens. "Rose," he murmurs, "I think they're who we're looking for."

"What? How do you know?"

"I...I recognize them. Well. I say 'recognize,' but I've never seen them before in my life. Which means it must be residual memory from my other self. They're not from this world."

"Okay," Rose says slowly. "So, those two know the Doctor in the other universe? And now they're here somehow?"

"That's an accurate summary, yes."

"Okay," Rose repeats. "Let's find out why they're here, and if they have a way to get back."

"Wait." The Doctor touches her arm. "Rose...you don't–"

"Of course not!" Rose exclaims. She's glad that they've progressed far enough that he asked instead of just assuming that she'd abandon him, but his nervousness still stings. "Doctor, I love it here. I love you. I love my family. Nobody's going anywhere, except maybe them." She walks closer to the couple and pauses.

"...Rory, this isn't New York! We don't even know what this place is! But if it isn't New York, the Doctor might be able to get us home."

"Amy, the Doctor thinks we're in New York. He's not coming." The man pauses. "Look, this must be some sort of a parallel universe. Make one different choice and it changes the future of the human race, that sort of thing."

"I know what a parallel universe is, Rory," the woman says, frustration bleeding through her voice. "I lived in one, remember?"

There is a short silence, then the woman starts speaking again. "We have to hope. I believe he can find us."

"Amy," the man–Rory–says gently, "I don't think he's looking."

"Well, there's your theory confirmed," Rose mutters to the Doctor. "Should we introduce you?"

"Might as well," he replies, "the longer you wait, the harder it gets."

Rose nods and pastes on a professional smile, trying to ignore the churning in her gut at the obvious heartbreak on the couple's faces. "Hello," she says, "I'm Rose Tyler, agent of Torchwood, and this is the Doctor. We picked up a temporal anomaly on our scanners that we believe is related to you. Would you be willing to answer some questions?"

The woman looks suspicious. "What do you mean, 'the Doctor'? Does this world have a Doctor too?"

The man interjects. "I'm Rory Williams and this is my wife Amy. Um, sorry, but we really have no idea where we are."

"Why don't you tell us what happened?" Rose invites. "It sounds like you know the Doctor from your world."

"Only if you promise to answer some questions too," Amy says sharply.

Rose nods. "Seems fair. Let's hear your story."


	3. A Problem

"So, Rory, you were touched by an Angel once before, and it just sent you to New York?" the man–the Doctor?–questions.

Rory nods.

"And you had a grave there? You're quite sure you had a grave?"

"That's not the sort of thing I'd forget, thanks," says Rory.

The man begins to pace, yanking at his ridiculous hair. "That shouldn't be possible. You shouldn't be here. You saw your own grave! There's no way to get around that!"

The blonde woman with him–Rose, she'd said her name was–lays a hand on his arm. "Rude," she hisses. "And insensitive."

"What? Oh. Sorry. Sorry, yeah, this is just all new to me. But the point is, Angels can't send someone through the walls of the universe, unless–" the Doctor spins, letting go of his hair, and Amy finds the idea that this man is this universe's Doctor a little more plausible. "Unless the walls of the universe were already weakened. Oh, this is bad. This is not good. Very, very...not good." He starts muttering to himself, some complex formula, but Amy has had enough.

"So the main point is, this is a parallel universe that we're in, right now. But we shouldn't be here, because that's not what Angels do. Okay, fine. So how do we get home?"

"You...wellll...that depends on your definition of home," the Doctor says. "Yes, you need to get out of here, but you can't go home. I'm so, so sorry, but you have to live your lives out in New York, in the past."

"What? Why?!" Amy demands. "That's–that's stupid! We can get back to the Doctor now! He can fix it."

"I am the Doctor, and...he can't. Look," the man sighs, "I really am sorry. But it's a paradox. You saw your own grave, Rory, and so did the Doctor. If you show up–well, first of all, the timelines are so tangled up around you now that the Tardis couldn't get within miles of you, and second, the instant the Doctor saw you there'd be mass destruction. Because he already saw that you die before he can get to you. It's a fixed point now. You get sent back, that means you didn't live out your lives in New York after all. But if you hadn't–won't haven't?–anyway, without that life lived in New York, there's no gravestone. Without the gravestone, you don't see your own grave and get touched by an Angel. Since you never got touched by an Angel, you didn't end up here and you can't have been sent back there. See? Paradox. You see the Doctor, Earth and possibly quite a number of neighboring planets get eaten."

Rory blinks. "Eaten?"

"By Reapers. They sense paradoxes and 'clean up' the mess by devouring all sentient life forms around it. Nasty creatures."

"Okay," says Amy, "I guess–I knew that when I turned around in that graveyard. I had hoped–" suddenly she can't speak, and buries herself in Rory's arms, breathing in his scent. "The Doctor will be on his own now. And River. My little girl."

"They'll be all right, Amy," Rory assures her, rock-steady as always. "They have each other. Like we do."

She nods and releases him, composed once more. Rose is watching then, Amy notices, face gentle and full of half-remembered pain.

"In my experience," the woman says, "the Doctor always finds someone. And we move on. It gets easier," she adds, a wry smile on her face.

The Doctor moves, puts an arm around Rose. "I never forgot you, you know," he murmurs, face intent, and Rose smiles.

Amy is growing more curious by the second, despite the sensation of loss that knocks the air out of her lungs when she thinks about it. She will deal with it later.

"Who are you?" she demands. "Both of you, really? And what are we going to do?"

"It's like I said. I'm the Doctor. This is Rose. As to a plan–"

"No, you're not!" Amy interrupts. "Not mine, anyway. My Doctor is freakishly tall with no fashion sense and can't turn in a full circle without knocking something over. You're something quite different," she adds appreciatively.

"Thank you," the Doctor replies, looking rather nonplussed, "although I'm offended on behalf of my future self. That doesn't sound like any of my past selves."

"So...you're a past regeneration then," Amy says.

"Yes–hold on, how do you know about that? Usually I don't plan ahead that far!"

"It's..." Amy hesitates. "It's a long story. Point is, you get all glow-y and change faces."

"Ye-es...though the biochemical processes and pathways are far more complex than just 'turning glow-y' and technically–" he catches her eye and shuts up.

"Okay," Amy says, "but that makes it sound as though you're from our universe. You're not, are you?"

"Wellll...it's complicated. As you say, it's a long story. Suffice it to say, your Doctor's past self ended up with a half-human clone–that's me. And there couldn't be two of us in one universe, so he dropped me off in this friendly neighboring one with Rose. She..." he hesitates. "She used to travel with me. Him. Whatever. Then she got stranded here, same as you. She managed to get back to my universe using a dimension cannon, but that because the walls between universes were collapsing under the force of the Daleks' reality bomb–another long story," he adds hastily under their questioning looks. "Point is, it's very, very bad that you're here. And we need to fix it."

"Okay, so what–" Rory began, and is suddenly enveloped in a beam of light. "What's going on?"

"Rory?" Amy takes his hand. "You're not going anywhere." She squeezes it tighter, and suddenly finds herself holding nothing as Rory blinks out of sight. "Where did he go? What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" the Doctor exclaims. "Maybe the people behind you showing up here took him."

"Why him and not me?" Amy demands, and suddenly everything is too much. She swallows hard. She can't break down, not yet.

Rose reaches out for her hand and takes it. "I don't know," she says, and her voice is firm. "But we'll find him, and we'll send you home."

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!  
> As always, I can be found on [tumblr](https://actual-bill-potts.tumblr.com).


End file.
